Truth-telling, or in ancient Greek, parrhesia, is something different. It is what one does when you tell or speak the truth exactly as you experience or perceive it, with no punches pulled. You don’t have to call the proverbial spade a shovel (unless this is what it takes to get through to your interlocutor), but you have to speak truthfully without holding back. This is particularly relevant for speaking (or writing) in public, where you run the risk of exposing yourself to harsh criticism.
There are several other such theories of truth, for example the pragmatic theory of truth, which assesses truth in the light of what supposedly true statements do, or by their consequences for action.
To appreciate this, one should remind oneself that not every instance of speaking the truth can be considered as being parrhesia.
Someone is said to use parrhesia and merits consideration as a parrhesiastes only if there is a risk or danger for him or her in telling the truth.
Parrhesia is linked to courage in the face of danger: it demands the courage to speak the truth in spite of some danger.
The well-known saying, 'to speak truth to power', is obviously related to this, and probably derives from Foucault's work.
When you accept the parrhesiastic game in which your own life is exposed, you are taking up a specific relationship to yourself: you risk death to tell the truth instead of reposing in the security of a life where the truth goes unspoken.
On the contrary, as Foucault points out, "It is because the parrhesiastes must take a risk in speaking the truth that the king or tyrant generally cannot use parrhesia; for he risks nothing".
https://brownstone.org/articles/truth-speaking-and-the-technocratic-cabal/
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